Most commercial aircraft that services a large number of passengers include a structure known as a “galley” that flight attendants use to prepare food and beverages for the passengers. The galley includes equipment for food preparation such as ovens and refrigerators, as well as food storage and preparation equipment. There can also be beverage makers, trash compactors, or other types of appliances used in the preparation and service of the food and beverage. The galley is typically large enough to store beverage carts that are filled with sodas and waters, and are wheeled to the passengers during the beverage service portion of the flight. Other carts can be used to keep meals warm while they are delivered to the passengers. In large aircraft that conduct transoceanic flights, there is often a crew rest area build above the galley.
During flight, the galley/rest area can move during turbulence as well as normal flight. This shifting prevents other structures from being rigidly attached to the galley, as the shifting can cause damage to the adjoining structure due to the weight of the galley and crew rest area. Thus, the galley is usually a stand-alone structure, or “monument”, in the aircraft architecture. In many aircraft, adjacent the galley is a stowage console that provides space to store additional carts and the like. The console and galley provide two heavy, free standing monuments that have a gap between them of 1 to 1.5 meters.
Because space on an aircraft, especially floor space, is so important, there have been attempts to use this gap for various purposes. One such purpose is to use the area between the stowage console and the galley as a crew changing area, where flight attendants and crew members can have some privacy to change clothes or the like. To this end, doors are fashioned to the console that can swing about and attach to the galley, providing a four sided “room” between the galley and the console that serves as the crew changing area.
The difficulty or challenge with forming a crew rest area between the console and the galley is two-fold. First, the galley's movement in flight creates a problem with making a rigid attachment between the two monuments, as the shifting can cause significant stresses on the doors and the joints. This would lead to the doors breaking in most cases, as the rigid connection is no match for the inertia of the galley as it shifts. However, without a rigid connection the doors could unexpectedly open, which is problematic for a changing area. The second issue is coming up with a reliable securing means that provides privacy to the occupant without gaps or line of sight openings, while providing some contingency for opening the door from the outside. The present invention addresses both of these issues.